Gloss Optimizer - Epson

[mikling]

Here is a PDF which seems to cover the problem
http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2011/466/problems/4/de Jong et al - 2006 - Air entrapment in piezo-driven inkjet printheads.pdf

Regarding carts to prime or not to prime, I have bought only the non priming type for the r800... until recently I finally found some of the priming type. I can't really say which makes more or less problems.
But the priming carts which I received are smaller (lower height, with almost the same content) and lighter: fully filled a OEM weighs almost 40g, a non priming cart with the same shape and height weighs about 35g - and a priming cart weighs only 30g.
View attachment 4686
Doesn't matter, you certainly think... me too... until I noticed that the carriage in its park position is not held firmly, you can lift it up some millimeter. And when the light priming carts are getting empty and even more light, then the weight is not heavy enough to hold the carriage down on the purging / parking pad. Probably resulting in a bad sealing of the nozzle plate...
View attachment 4687 View attachment 4688
I have put some weight into the carriage to prevent this.

BTW there are very few chinese sellers who have good instructions, especially for priming, if you get any description at all..

On the better priming types for the 800 bodies, there will be a plug next to the bottom outlet. These plugs are to allow for priming. Not as good as putting the whole cartridge inside a vacuum chamber but gets you 95+ % there.
Even today many do not understand the functionality of those little discs on the top right corner.
Most of the foreign vendors are simply purchasing from a large wholesaler in the wholesale district and then run a website. For most it is simply a living with the least interest in imaging and printing.

 

[martin0reg]

I have sets with and without plugs on the bottom, didn't use them for priming as I didn't got instructions...
Priming I use to do by pulling the plunger and let the vacuum suck the ink out of the syringe. And later on, if neccessary, by sucking some ml out of the outlet.

Those "check bells", I heard the name, but admit I don't know its purpose too...

@martin0reg, I once had a stylus photo 950 with roll paper and cutter, it was an ink guzzler and it died on me when a cartridges leaked into the print head electrics, it was the very last Epson I ever owned, thankfully...

Yes an ink guzzler, but I have enough ink to feed him..
A problem seems to be the very special design of the OEM carts, with an air channel which would open and close by putting the cart in and out. This rather complicated mechanism is missing at refillables, probably at compatibles too. Therefor leaking or blotting ink may occur..? I haven't found a "blotting safe" method to refill those refillables.


But now I will certainly try the "refill in situ" with my 950 next time.

 

[mikling]

The spring mechanism opening and closing of the valves is actually the air inlet valve. When inserted, it depresses a valve hidden behind a rubber diaphragm on the underside. The intake is actually behind the Epson label. That air intake behind the label "filtered" actually, then proceeds through a serpentine and then goes into the cartridge via horizontal passages. It is truly an expensive design.

On compatibles resealing is done via reinsertion of a plug into the air intake vent and serpentines are also there.

The internal baffles on these OEM cartridges actually went thru a second iteration after a period of time. One of the baffles was inverted 90 degrees.

On the next generation of OEM carts, the opening and closing valve was removed and followed the path of the refillables. Then at the same time, there were more complicated baffles which essentially prevented reverse flow out of the carts. These carts followed the loss on the class action lawsuit and actual ink sensors were installed....to make sure every useable drop of ink was used. We also now began seeing the closed up areas inside carts reducing real capacity. E.g. R1900. The R2000 had opened up some of these wall for greater capacity and more marketing.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I tested some ink sets in my R800, I just got CMY inks and mixed blue and red, all inks are sold specifically to suit the R800 - as special inks for this printer model, inks by Cityinkexpress, farbenwerk, ConeColorPro and one ink of unkown origin by a friend . and labelled as Higloss Epson compatible.
None of these inks really eliminate gloss differentials with the gloss opt. activated - with both options - either full or auto. I'm always printing onto the Netbit/Aldi or a Tecco photo glossy paper. I'm printing the patch sheets to create an icm-profile with the printouts. The printouts with all inks look pretty similar, I wouldn't really be able to rate them much differently by their look. When running the profile and comparing the gamut three of the inks are pretty close together, the ConeColor Pro ink has a smaller gamut in this test. All inks are not tested with real blue and red inks but all ink sets are limited the same way in this respect by just using an ink mix instead. But the gamut is not of my first interest in this test.

https://imagescience.com.au/knowledge/bronzing-and-gloss-differential-issues-on-inkjet-papers

They tell me that 'the problem is inherent in current coating on high gloss papers and there is no perfect solution at this stage.'

So I either give up or continue my search with some more inks (or should I defect to Canon?)

 

[The Hat]

@Ink stained Fingers, don’t worry we won’t tell anyone if you quietly migrate over to Canon, and just think of all the fun you’ll have testing these new inks...

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Oh well, searching the internet for 'gloss differential' shows me that I'm not alone, I even get links to images
like this one
http://www.imagebank.eu/detail/photo/old-and-new-royalty-free-image/182188194

or that HP users are getting into this as well
http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c01565722
HP is apparently using a Gloss Enhancer to reduce bronzing and gloss differences...

 

[The Hat]

I see what you mean, but you must agree, the gloss really does a much better job on the black...

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I remembered printing with a D88 looong time ago, with the Durabrite inks, those came out very glossy on glossy papers but with a pretty strong bronzing effect making that combination not very appealing. But the question is whether the GO would remove the bronzing effect but keep the good gloss of the Durabrite inks. I tested a Durabrite compatible ink Coloration ED by farbenwerk.com , this ink apparently does not look like the original in terms of gloss and gloss difference on glossy papers - that test was not very successful.

I found some test prints from last year with the Inktec Powerchrome K3 and Lyson AQ880, I had put them aside since they did not result in any good printouts on glossy papers, and even less on semiglossy ones, here with strong bronzing effects . I printed those over with GO in the R800 with an interesting result, the prints with these inks onto semiglossy papers look by far the best at this time, the bronzing is gone , no gloss differences and the color saturation improved. The inks, even with the GO overprint still show some gloss difference on glossy papers, similar to the other inks so far. So I rather will look for some other Durabrite compatible inks with a similar gloss.

 

[martin0reg]

I have a HP B8850/9180, sort of shrinked HP large format printer technicallly, with great output on all papers except glossy, because of bronzing (if it outputs at all.. thinking of paper jam and buggy drivers). And I've heard from other HP pro users, that the "gloss enhancer" in bigger models (e.g z3200) would make quite a difference.
Here is a detailed review with good results of GE (scroll down)
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/printer/hp_z3200ps.html
Maybe it's the way that these printers apply the fluid (in which parts of the image, how many drops etc) OR it's the gloss enhancer itself? You will get this out of bigger carts... maybe worth a try...

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Yes, about every pigment ink user is faced with the issue, including HP, and all companies offer a Gloss/Chroma-Optimizer/Enhancer which fixes the bronzing and gloss diff. to a degree, more or less. The visibility of the effects depends on the inks in combination with the paper, the coating. I'm testing at this time with two different gloss optimizers - by octopus-office and farbenwerk. There is not really much a different effect with those.